Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Mores

Dmitry Sheremetev's guardians refused to rent the House of Solitude at Kuskovo to actress Sandunova

With the death of Count Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, Dmitry Nikolayevich, his seven-year-old son by the former serf actress Praskovya Gorbunova-Zhemchugova, who died soon after the birth, was left a complete orphan. The boy's upbringing was taken on by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, while as

Black-and-white photograph of well-dressed visitors with umbrellas walking at the foot of the Eiffel Tower among exhibition pavilions.

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Observations · Paris

The grounds around the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 World's Fair and the pavilions demolished afterwards

The grounds around the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Exposition Universelle. It is strange to reflect that all these buildings were temporary pavilions, and were simply pulled down once the exhibition was over

Black-and-white photograph of two large stone warrior figures on a grassy plain, two men standing between them, more statues and hills in the distance.

NB! · Archive · The East · Heritage

Stone statues at Ming-era tombs in China in a photograph of 1869

Tombs of the Ming era in China, that is, of the 14th to 17th centuries. Photograph of 1869

Faith · Art · Observations · Humour

And now let us take a look at Judith by the Italian painter Fede Galizia

Good heavens, what is the matter with this woman? Why is her face so serene, with the faintest smile? She has, after all, just cut off a man's head. Yet nothing in her appearance betrays the murder so recently committed. True, painters always give Judith this blissful tranquillity

Art · Monarchies · Mores · People · Humour

Marquise de Montespan as Judith in Gabriel Revel's painting of 1688

The Marquise de Montespan as Judith, Thriftily Holding the Severed Head of Holofernes. Once more, then: the Marquise de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV and mother of seven of his children, in the guise of the Old Testament heroine Judith, the young widow who saved besieged Judea by cutting off

Books · Moscow · Observations · Reportage · Humour

The intellectual literature fair at Gostiny Dvor and buying books with no intention of reading them

Shall I tell you what a fair of intellectual literature is? City dwellers, worn out by bustle, obligations and a dusk that begins at four in the afternoon, come to Gostiny Dvor to sigh a little in the queue at the entrance, jostle by the cloakroom and, at last, plunge

Observations · Science · Nature

Sebastian Voltmer's 1 December image and questions about the anti-tail and plasma tail of 3I/ATLAS

Sebastian Voltmer has published a stunning image of the "comet" 3I/ATLAS taken on 1 December. Well-informed viewers are asking how to explain the green anti-tail, which moves against the solar wind, and the opposite blue tail, which moves with it. I, for my part, simply

Faith · Art · Museums · Observations

Self-Portrait and John the Baptist in Ghirlandaio’s “Adoration of the Magi” in Florence

I have not been to Florence for some five years, but I remember distinctly the impression made by Domenico Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Magi of around 1488 in the Foundling Hospital. The painter modestly included a self-portrait in the scene: the figure on the left in red

NB! · Books · People

A Good Poet, Alexander Volovik

Archaeology · Science · Humour

Underwater work on the galleon San José off Cartagena yields a cannon, cups and coins

A galleon filled to the brim with gold has been found in the Caribbean, yet the scientists somehow report that all they have managed to raise from the treasure ship is a piece of rope, some broken cups, three coins and a cannon. Curious, is it not? In the Caribbean

NB! · Archive

Newborn, photograph by Yury Abramochkin

Cinema · Society

Estonia considers banning cinema screenings of films dubbed into Russian

The Estonian Government is considering amendments to language legislation that could ban cinemas from screening films dubbed into Russian. The aim of the initiative is to encourage audiences to watch films in the original language. The bill still has to pass its second and third readings in parliament. If adopted,

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